I admit that the nineteenth-century shrub of neutrality has been
seared by the sharp frosts of Adolf Hitler. Yet the moral and the practical trunk remains. We must cut down to the roots. What are the roots? One of the speakers in the Union debate contended that there was now no general doctrine of neutrality, but three types of neutral. With that verbal felicity which is so becoming in the young he defined those three types as "The defensive neutral, the offensive neutral, and the sit-on- the-fence-ive neutral." That was a bright remark and we can extend it further. I should define the three types in the follow- ing categories. (r) Those neutrals who, as the United States, possess the power to defend their neutral rights and the desire to fulfil their neutral dudes. (2) Those neutrals who possess the power to defend their rights, but no desire to fulfil their duties. (3) Those neutrals who desire passionately both to defend their rights and to fulfil their duties, but who do not possess sufficient physical strength to render their desires effective.
* * * *
Previous page
